Springfield Personal Injury Attorney
Helping You Get the Care and Compensation You Need and Deserve
A personal injury can be painful, debilitating and expensive to treat. You might miss work immediately after the injury and into the future while you seek treatment or if you are disabled. Additionally, a serious accident can turn your life upside-down and throw your household into chaos, whether you were the primary breadwinner, homemaker, child caregiver, or if other family members have to disrupt their routines to help care for you or take on more responsibilities while you are out of commission. All of this is costly, and you deserve to be compensated when your injury is the fault of a negligent driver or property owner, or if you were injured at work. The Springfield personal injury attorneys at Courtney & Mills can help.
Auto Accidents
Car crashes kill and injure tens of thousands of Missourians every year. Most tragically, the vast majority of auto accidents are preventable. Speeding, distracted driving, drunk driving and other negligent behaviors are behind just about every collision that occurs. Every driver is required to carry liability insurance to cover $25,000 for personal injury to one person or $50,000 if more than one person is hurt, and drivers with valuable assets to protect might carry more coverage than the minimum amount Missouri law requires.
Even when the at-fault driver is covered by liability insurance, getting the full amount of your claim from the insurance company is a challenge. You should be entitled to receive payment for all your present and future medical bills related to the crash, along with lost income for work you missed or if the accident disabled you, and compensation for your pain and suffering as well. The insurance company, however, wants to pay as little as they can. They’ll dispute their driver’s liability and say you were at fault in causing the accident. Even if they don’t fully succeed in this, any amount of blame they can shift to you reduces the amount they’ll have to pay. They might also say you are exaggerating your injuries or your injuries were preexisting.
To be successful in your claim and recover the full amount your case is worth, you need to be able to prove the other driver was at fault and you weren’t, and you have to convincingly demonstrate the extent of your injuries. We’ve done this for years and achieved significant, six-figure recoveries when our clients have been severely injured in a car accident by a negligent driver. We build a strong case for maximum value and are ready to take your case to a jury if the insurance company doesn’t settle for an appropriate amount.
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist
Despite the law requiring all drivers to carry liability insurance, about 14% of Missourians don’t, meaning around one in eight drivers on the road are uninsured. So long as you followed the law even when the negligent driver didn’t, you can still pursue a claim for damages. This time, you’ll file your claim with your own insurance company under your Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage. This coverage is required by law at the $25,000/$50,000 minimums to cover precisely this situation. Even though you are filing a claim with “your” insurance company, you’ll still need to watch out for lowball settlement offers and be ready to prove the other driver’s fault and the nature of your injuries.
Another situation occurs when the negligent driver is insured but only carries the minimum amounts, which don’t cover your costs. In this case, you can file an Underinsured Motorist (UIM) claim with your insurance company to make up the difference, assuming you have UIM. Missouri law does not require UIM, but it’s relatively affordable and a good idea considering how expensive a car accident injury can be.
Our attorneys can represent you in your uninsured or underinsured motorist claim and help you get a full and fair settlement or take your case to court if necessary.
Slip and Fall
A slip and fall case can be complicated and difficult to prove. Your injuries might not be visible, allowing the insurance company to challenge your claim. If the condition that caused the accident was temporary, like a liquid spill or a slippery entrance from rain or snow, the evidence might be cleaned up and gone before you had a chance to make a record of it. Also, insurers are known to blame the accident victim, saying the accident would not have happened if you had been watching where you were going. Finally, the duty of a property owner under Missouri premises liability changes depending on the legal status of the victim as a licensee, invitee or trespasser.
Our Springfield personal injury lawyers have successfully achieved significant recoveries for slip and fall injury victims and are ready to help you with your claim. We know how to investigate an accident, gather the facts and build a strong case for full compensation.
Workplace Accidents
Practically all employees in Missouri are covered by workers’ compensation insurance. After an injury on the job, workers can get their medical bills paid by workers’ comp and also receive a portion of their regular wages while they are out of work due to the injury. Employees don’t have to prove their employer or a co-worker was negligent and caused the accident, and they don’t have to worry that someone will say their own negligence is to blame. Nevertheless, employers and their insurance carriers still find numerous ways to deny claims or cut off benefits early before the employee is ready to go back to work. For instance, they can say that you are faking your injury or that the injury isn’t work-related. The cards are not stacked in the employee’s favor in a workers’ compensation claim. Your employer (or their insurer) gets to pick the doctor you can see, and they can continually require you to undergo medical exams so they can say you are no longer injured and done receiving benefits.
You’re not alone after an on-the-job injury lays you low. Our experienced workplace accident attorneys will guide you through the workers’ compensation process and represent you in hearings and appeals if your claim is denied. We can also pursue any available negligence claims when a third-party is responsible for your injury, such as a car accident that happens while you are on the clock or a fall that occurs while working off-site on a third-party’s dangerous property.
Get Immediate Help After a Springfield Personal Injury
If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury in a Springfield auto accident, slip and fall, workplace accident or other misfortune, call Courtney & Mills at 417-869-9888 or 888-844-7518. Your consultation is free, and we only charge a fee after we are successful in recovering compensation for you.
